Doug Davidson

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I received a nice little present in the mail today – this cool little sticker from the organizers of the Rick Springfield Birthday Campaign. Each year this group of fans raises money for RS’s charity of choice and fans also donate prizes. This is such a cool project, which has raised more than $100,000 since 2007.

So far this year, since Aug. 15, the campaign has raised, as of today, $12,321.69, plus RS’s Facebook page campaign has raised $3,020. All funds go to help dogs through the Linda Blair Worldheart Foundation.

Learn all about the campaign at happybirthdayrick.com (plus you can see a cute video of his birthday song at a recent concert on the site’s home page). The campaign runs through Sept. 23. There are lots of great prizes, with the grandest of all being a backstage pass at a future show. Other prizes include original RS drawings, CDs, signed photos and lots of RS-related merchandise and memorabilia.

It was a nice surprise to get this today of all days because I checked the mail after I got home from the monthly songwriting workshop I attend and the song I brought today received the best feedback from all the songs I’ve brought so far. Not that there’s necessarily any connection between the two (outside of in my own head), but it was icing on the cake.

I also have something to add to my last post- besides the songs, books, movies, TV shows, rock concerts, solo storytelling acoustic shows and symphony shows, recent interviews have also disclosed the potential for MORE:

Besides touring and performing live, Springfield, who just turned 69, has plenty of other things going on. A second novel is in the works, for example. A new album is “starting to come together.” A Broadway musical could be said to be just waiting to happen.

In an interview in The Daily Times in Blount County, he mentions that he plans to re-record his older hits with a symphony orchestra and then write his next record. Plus there was an article in Guitar Player that gave a great review of “The Snake King” – and of his guitar playing.

In other news, RS shows what a great friend he is to his BFF Doug Davidson:

Many RS fans have a personal connection with Doug Davidson since he’s been on the RS fan trips (for me it was because he replied to my fan letters to him when I was in high school). It saddens me to hear how he’s been treated and wish him only the best. I can’t even comprehend of Y&R existing without DD – he was always my association with the show.

I hope this freeing up of his schedule opens him up to an INCREDIBLE opportunity. Maybe RS can write a new show or movie they can work on together – judging from videos I’ve seen from fan trips, it looks like they would have a blast (and they could probably sell tickets to the filming since they are so hilarious together). Since they met in an acting class all those years ago, wouldn’t it be so cool if they could team up for some sort of acting project all these decades later?

The selfies that Doug Davidson shared on Twitter today are just so darn cute – he and his wife along with RS and his wife hanging out in Milan, Italy.

Knowing the background of their friendship (through “Late, Late at Night” and teen magazine interviews back in the day), it’s just so freakin’ cool that they are all still friends.

I’m not even sure if I can clearly explain it, but knowing that the Davidson family was RS’s American family back when he so desperately needed one and that they were friends before fame and through tumultuous times is so heartwarming. Plus, the video clips I’ve seen of the two of them together are hilarious.

And I have a little confession to make.

Back in those teen years, I kind of had a little crush on Doug Davidson, too. I watched “The Young and the Restless” long after I stopped following “General Hospital,” especially for the scenes with Paul Williams.

I’m sure I’m not the only RS fan who experienced this, right? After all he’s cute and funny and seems like a nice guy. We were even “pen pals” for a few years (“pen pals” meaning that I would write fan letters and he’d kindly write back on “Young and the Restless” postcards.)

I still have all of the cards from him – eight, dating from 1984 to 1987. A couple of them were signed Christmas cards, but most of them were personalized (assuming that there wasn’t a Y&R intern who answered fan mail) notes. I wish I could remember what I wrote to him because the personalized notes always made some sort of reference to whatever it was I wrote. Apparently after I moved to California, I sent him the menu and business card of the restaurant I was working at and he said he’ll stop by if he is in the neighborhood. Ha! He never did. But I still think that he was incredibly kind to reply to fan mail. (Even if it turns out that it was an intern who typed them up, Doug signed them and drew little smiley faces.)